Category: Geeky Stuff

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I’ve been putting off this little project…

Several months ago I got a nifty server. 5 drives, I configured it in a RAID array with two drive redundancy.

For those of you that think I just spoke Greek. I didn’t. Simply put, I have a server with 5 hard drives that work as a set. Any two of these drives can fail without me losing all the data stored on the server. I can pull the bad drive out, replace it and tell the server to fix the problem. A few hours later the server will be back up to full operating speed and while it’s fixing the problem, I still have access to the data.

Anyhoo, I’ve been meaning to put the thing on the shelf in my wiring closet. It will be protected and I won’t have to worry about the dog bumping into it when he comes in to the office to ask me to play. He doesn’t just ask, he’s a bit aggressive about it. He’s a dog… He doesn’t understand that some electronics are fragile and don’t like being bumped around while they’re running.

So I decided the other day, that the time had come. I’ve been putting it off because 1) nothing with computers is ever as easy as it seems. 2) I knew there was a rats nest of cables I’d have to sort through. 3) The other half had to get a new computer (The second hard drive in 6 months failed and I didn’t really want to mess with it.

I start shutting things down. Then I started pulling unused or un-necessary cables out of the wiring closet. I finally got to the point where I could route power and network cables and encountered a major problem.

The cables I wanted to run were too thick to run them the way I’d done in the past. I’m standing there holding a shelf in my hand thinking, “Well damn, this isn’t going to work.”

Then I remembered my nifty new RYOBI tools in the garage. I knew I had a 1″ hole bit in a bit set I’d recently purchased. I take the shelf downstairs and grab the new drill and the bit set. That’s when I noticed that I’d also gotten with the set, 4 different sized hole saws.

OH Goody! I’d wondered what I’d use those for and now I know and have a good excuse to boot.

I set the 1.4″ hole saw on it’s bit, locked it down and fit the assembly in the chuck of the drill. 10 minutes later I’ve got two beautiful holes in the shelf right where I need them. The drill didn’t even breathe hard.

I was standing there looking at my work, for the briefest instance I considered where else I might need a convenient hole. Thankfully something in my brain hit the emergency stop on that thought process!

I put the tools away without drilling anymore holes. I patted the new drill appreciatively and put it back in it’s case.

I suspect that I’ll be drilling and cutting some things in the near future as I run antenna cables for the HAM rig. (Yeah, that’s another project on the list. I need to get some better antennas and get them installed so I can get out a bit better. HAM is another of those hobbies where getting a new radio just leads to a bunch of supplementary purchases.)

I head back up into the house, shelf in hand and put it back in place. The cables routed easily and I was able to put the power cabling through one hole while putting the data cables through the opposite end of the shelf. That keeps potential interference from power away from my data. As I’m standing there on the ladder I was thinking, “I’m a moron. I should have done this exact thing years ago! I’d have saved myself a lot of aggravation over the years.“

I put the server in place, and powered everything back up. Simple and it’s a nice looking installation.

Well, that chore done… I turned my attention to another round of data recovery. That was 48 hours of pure hell. Thankfully, my computer is fast, my network is fast, and I’m pretty good at this sort of thing. Corrupted backups and a person who has no concept of a data storage plan, not withstanding. Recovering data is just plain tedious in the first place. Not having specific documents stored in logical folders to assist in targeting the important stuff makes it very frustrating.

So to any of you out there who just spatter documents and files anywhere and everywhere on your computer. I’ll give you this advice. If you value your relationship, tell your techie other half what is most important, and keep the booze coming. One other thing, move your files into some kind of logical order to start with!

As it turns out, the backups were corrupted from the previous three hard drive crashes. The other half hadn’t done any organization after any of those crashes. In fact, after me telling them that the backups were corrupted, they kept using them anyway, compounding the problem.

With 10 Terabytes of storage available, the other half had also not copied the important files out to the server for redundancy. Sigh… and I’m the bad guy for being pissed off about it.

Mischief managed. The other half is running on the new computer. The server now has copies of all the files I recovered in a non-backup related directory and there’s a duplicate scanner running on my computer looking at that directory eliminating duplications and preserving edits in chronological order. When that’s done the files will be moved to a directory structure where Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, Photos, Music, Musical Scores, and other files will each have their own directory path.

Now to create a scheduled process that updates those directories once a week from the other half’s computer. As things stand right now, I burned 4 Terabytes on the server in recovery. I’ve got the other half sorting through tons of their own shit to figure out what is important and relevant to keep.

Just punishment, I think.

When they’re done with the space, I’ll be able to delete the corrupted backups (Hanging on to them for the moment in case I have to dive in to find some super important thing I missed. Then the recovered directories (except the one I’m processing) will be gone. I’m not going to be surprised to see about 2.5 – 3.5 Terabytes suddenly be available again on the server.

While I’m at it, I may go out and access one of my really old archival backups to consolidate more storage. I can move the files and documents to the main server in my home folder and then delete the old archive backup too. Then I’ll keep only the important stuff that provides history back to 2008 when everything was destroyed.

This has been my week, I hope your’s was better and in the midst of all of this I’ve managed to apply for jobs… Not that anyone is responding to my inquiries.

But I’ll keep at it.

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The Halloween Movie List

Pumpkin.jpegUp until the last three years, I’d played a selection of movies selected specifically for Halloween, for my friends.

I used to play 50s & 60s science fiction and have small get togethers with friends that would appreciate these movies.  We’d make popcorn, eat some of the kids candy and answer the door for trick or treaters (although there were fewer of those every year). 

Resident Evil ExtinctionOver time the Halloween gathering became more of an adult affair, with food, drinks, and optional costumes. So the movies became more adult and less campy. As friends moved away, the neighborhood changed, and my most recent job precluded the goofiness. The Halloween tradition faded away.

The last three years I’d come home from work on Halloween and watch a movie or two from the collection by myself.

Sadly, the once fun tradition began to become melancholy because there wasn’t the goofball silliness that accompanied friends just enjoying each other’s company.

This year I realized that I could easily let Halloween blow by as just another day.

There’s no-one to share the fun with at all in part due to COVID isolation, and in part because most of my friends have moved away.

Couple these facts with the difficulties of replacing friends as an older adult and Halloween could just become another day.  

omegaman.jpgThis is unacceptable especially since this year Halloween falls on a Saturday.

Years where Halloween fell on a Friday or Saturday were always fun party like celebrations.

I’ve decided that I will not submit! Alone or not, I’m going to have my tradition!

I’m giving a big middle finger to COVID, and all the BS in my own special way. I’m going to make drinks for myself, put out a small bowl of candy, make popcorn, turn the lights down low, and watch Halloween worthy movies.

A slight difference this year is that I’m going to run scary movies possibly all weekend.

I’m planning to start with It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Yes, I know that’s not a scary movie but it’s a Halloween tradition from my childhood.

lifemovie.jpgNext up is the Resident Evil series

Yes, I own them all and they’re very appropriate this year.

Next up will be 28 Days Later I might even add 28 Weeks Later to the collection.

Then I’m thinking Twelve Monkeys. Are you seeing a pattern here?

I was thinking about tossing Life in at this point.

Followed by Apollo 18 Just to cover the space genre.

Optionally, perhaps Prometheus and Covenant. 

Apollo18.jpegAeon Flux will probably also make the cut

I’m positive about The Omega Man

I’ve been thinking about The Osiris Child

Then adding The War of the Worlds, just for a little balance. After all viruses might be your friend.

I’m tossing in Shaun of the Dead to lighten the mood

Perhaps I’ll toss in the Underworld series. 

Finishing up with Inferno

I thought about the obvious addition of The Andromeda Strain but I don’t own that one anymore and don’t want to pay the price iTunes wants for it. I’ll wait for the after Halloween sale.

If you’re not a big Sci-Fi fan, you might not be getting the connection. Allow me to explain.

All these movies (except Charlie Brown) deal with an infectious disease, or a virus. This is my way of saying, “Hey It could be worse!“

I seriously considered adding Invasion of the body snatchers, the version with Donald Southerland because of him pointing at the last survivor and making that horrible noise at the end of the movie, “Outing” her to the rest of those who’d been taken over.

That would be a fitting hat tip to the “Mask Shamers” these days. But it doesn’t make the cut because it’s not a germ or virus. It’s an alien life form bent on conquest.

Prometheus and Covenant are optional because both deal with an engineered viral agent.

This is me saying, “UP YOURS” to the current climate of terror over a virus that is 99% survivable.

Hopefully next year I’ll be back to my normal campy 50’s Sci-Fi and Monster movies.

After all, Halloween may originally have been a pagan kind of “Up Yours!” to the encroaching winter months saying you can’t have us, we will survive.

What better way to say that, than to imitate and make jokes about death and darkness. I know, earlier versions of the Holiday were more serious and meant to honor or appease the dead who might find their way back through the veil to the land of the living.

Believe me, any of my family who came back for a visit would want laughter, drinks, and merriment. My family is big on the philosophy of “UP YOURS!”

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10 or 11 days and nothing much new in the world

Ugh! The country has lost it’s mind.

I have finally gotten my dirt. I humped 19 bags of it from the front of the house to the back. Then cut the bags of dirt open to create a “Redneck” liner for the raised gardening boxes. I wasn’t going to pay for some liner thing, all I need a liner to do is mostly contain the dirt and not let too much moisture seep into the ground.

So, I got creative and used the empty dirt bags to form a liner. I’m pleased with the outcome, call it on site recycling. The plastic of the bags is perforated so I don’t have to worry too much about pooling. I wanted drainage, but didn’t want it to be instant.

One box full. Got to use my nifty little shovel too.

The drip watering system is in place. I’m waiting for some valves and miscellaneous parts to complete that part of the project. Hopefully those will be showing up later today.

I purchased some bib lettuce and squash plants They’re already sprouted so later today when it cools off outside I’m going to be planting those. Next up will be some carrots and maybe tomatoes. I’m thinking some zucchini and perhaps some other veggies that I like to have fresh.

Empty, Slightly offset so I can work on
the Drip.

Now the problem will be to keep the critters out of my garden. I’d put a picture of Elmer Fudd hunting wabbits but I’m sure that I’d offend someone with that.

I’ve take some pictures and will be taking more as the garden progresses. These boxes aren’t going to generate a lot of food but they’re keeping me grounded and will spice up the regular meals.

Who knows? I might have to get more boxes and put them all over the yard if the unrest continues. I think that if I had the entire backyard full, I might even be able to grow enough to barely feed myself.

That’s not a theory I’d like to have to prove.

Boxes filled. Drip soaker lines ready to go

This is more of something to pass the time and keep me from losing my mind entirely. I like growing things and somehow, food I’ve grown tastes better. I suppose it’s a matter of literal fruits of my labor. This way I cut out the middleman.

In any case, I hope your day is as rewarding as mine has been.

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Finally! Who’d have thought it would be a Michael Moore production?

My brother sent me the link to this film.

Watch it soon, there’s no way of telling how long it will be up on YouTube especially since it blows the hell out of the New Green Energy deal.

I’m sure YouTube will find something in it that violates their terms of service, and take it down.

I watched it all. It’s an exposé about how so called green energy isn’t actually all that green. To make batteries, and solar panels, you have to mine and refine rare earth elements.

A lot of folks may not know that solar panels come in varying efficiencies. The most efficient (hence expensive) panels only convert about 20% of the light falling on them to useable electricity and that is at maximum. Add some clouds, haze, or if sun isn’t striking the panels dead on, and the efficiency drops. Solar panels also degrade over their life and have to be replaced.

Here’s a personal example, I have a portable 20W solar panel. It does indeed produce 20W in full direct sunlight if it is angled so that the sun is striking the panel at 90 degrees. But that requires realigning the panel about every 15 minutes or so.

Realistically my 20W panel in normal operation produces 7  to 12 watts. That’s enough to recharge my phone or iPad directly from the panel. It’s not enough to charge my computer. So I connect the panel to a battery pack. The panel charges the pack and the pack charges my other devices.

However, you’re almost always in a diminishing cycle. You’re pulling more power from the battery pack than you can replace.

One solution is to get bigger panels.

Yep, I can connect my 20W panel to a 30W panel and between the two I can charge my battery pack in a shorter amount of time, or if it’s overcast I can charge the pack in 6 – 12 hours. What I can’t do consistently is charge devices and the pack.

It’s a rare day indeed if I can stay on the positive side of the charge curve. It’s not that big a deal since this rig is for camping. I’ve not even talked about camp lights.

My point is this. It takes a large solar surface area to generate power. And that power generation is only working when the sun is out. At night or on a dark rainy day you’ve got no power generation.

In my case with proper energy management this solution works fine for camping. After all I’m camping to get away from technology right? The problem is, it’s not really all that scalable.

I can say this because I’ve actually experienced the process.

I’d guess that a large percentage of the population hasn’t actually worked with a solar panel and because of this, they simply believe that solar power is a 100% solution.

It’s not the average Joe’s fault that they don’t have experience.

I can hold the rabidly Green Deal people to account because they should have actual facts before preaching at the rest of us. (Greta, I’m looking at you.)

When you start doing the math, it becomes obvious quickly that you need a large array of solar panels in an area of the country where you get sun 99% of the time and you need some kind of very efficient storage medium (battery) to store what you don’t use so that you can use it later.

For instance, the roof of a house provides a large surface area and can give you a big array of panels. Without storage, at night you’re going to be dependent on the standard electrical grid.

That’s how most of the home solar installations work. In daytime the roof panels power most, if not all the house needs. At night the house switches over to the normal electrical grid. After all you don’t want your fridge, or heater not running at night or inoperative during the winter. 

The practical upshot of this is you’ll always need to have a big generator running at a public utility somewhere.

Don’t get me wrong, I think houses should all have solar, if for no other reason than it would allow the reduction of power demand on the power plant, meaning overall, less power demand would mean less pollution.

It should also be pointed out, research into solar panels is ongoing and at some point we might be able to get panels with much higher efficiencies.

However, this comes at a cost. Solar panels are made of some pretty exotic materials and creation of panels means mining and processing those exotic materials.

Guess what? There are some really nasty chemicals involved in solar panel, computer chip, and battery manufacture. Not to mention the strip mining, pollution, and deforestation required to obtain and process those raw materials.

Solar is not a complete solution and it may never be.

Wind turbines have essentially the same problems, they don’t produce power if the wind isn’t blowing. With turbines you also need a very large amount of space.

As an aside, I personally enjoy pissing off the smug, rabidly green electric car owners. I do it with a simple question, “How is the electricity you charge your car with being produced?”

The ensuing conversation is often a wonderful demonstration of faulty logic, and lack of understanding about science, or how things work.

Again don’t take this the wrong way, electric cars are great. They’re fast, zero emission, and quiet. In cities they’re probably the best way to reduce air pollution and contribute to the overall health of the folks living in the cities, especially, in the case of those folks with respiratory problems.

But the solution isn’t perfect. Somewhere, there is an electric plant burning something to spin generators to make the power to charge that car.

Somewhere there’s a strip mine that’s produced the lithium used in that car’s batteries. At the end of the batteries usable life, there’s going to be a toxic dump stacked high with battery packs that no-one wants.

Most of us notice our phone batteries start not lasting the whole day after a couple of years. Imagine that in your car. What happens when you can’t make it to the grocery store and back on a full charge? You either get a new car, or new batteries. Either way, something is going to end up in a dump someplace.

I’ve always asked, “Just how green is that?”

I tend to keep cars 10 or 20 years. I maintain them and drive ‘em until they fall apart or are totaled by some idiot driver hitting me. I tend to keep my cellphone for much longer than other people. Though not as long as some of my friends. 

For me it’s about cost versus return on investment, and factored into that is also responsibility. Do I need to have a new car, phone, computer, or TV, every 3 years? Do I want to add something substantial to the pile of waste?

Usually, I find myself saying nope, and I’m good with keeping my good old reliable stuff for another few years.

I’m not even particularly Green. I’m simply a guy who thinks we shouldn’t be wasteful. Call it a philosophy of trying to live my life like a backpacker. Pack out your trash… Leave it as you found it.

Many electric car owners are smug and often self righteous about “being green” until you point out where the components and power come from. They get really pissed off when you point out that all they’ve done is shifted the problem to another part of the country or world.

It’s not that these people are mean or stupid, they’ve just never connected the dots. They’ve bought into the illusion that green energy is reducing pollution. A lot of these folks are content to live in an “out of sight, out of mind” vision of the world.

When they do connect the dots, they’re usually pissed off and never look at their 65K electric car in quite the same way again.

That’s why I was pleased to see a movie like Planet of the Humans, it’s probably not all 100% accurate, but it points out that shifting the issue isn’t solving the issue.

I really enjoyed the part about biomass.

Somehow that group thinks that burning wood is better than burning oil.

On its face that makes no sense!

One need only look at the energy density of wood versus oil to see that we’ll deforest the planet in short order, maintaining our current energy output with wood. 

Ask yourself this question. What is oil?

Oil, in its purest sense is concentrated biomass. So theoretically burning oil efficiently is going to be better than burning wood to generate power.

I’ll admit that I thought the biomass generation plants were burning stuff from landfills. If that were true then every kilowatt from that source is a win. (Assuming there was no increase in toxic chemicals being released into the air.) But if you’re cutting down trees to fuel the biomass plants then you’ve lost your mind.

There was one glaring omission from this movie. Nuclear power.

I know that all the green activists, and even those who are not so green are opposed to nuclear power. There are indeed risks with nuclear.

That being said, I’d suggest that you watch Pandora’s Promise with an open mind before you categorically say no to nuclear power.

I saw this on Netflix a while ago, It’s currently available on YouTube for rent, and Amazon Prime.

Planet of the Humans, indirectly suggests that population control is the only way out of the climate problem. There is one person in the movie that mentions we think technology will save us. Then the movie kind of brushes past the technology issue.

Pandora’s Promise presents another option. It may not be the best option but it might be a viable one that could substantially reduce our consumption of, and reliance on fossil fuels.

There’s another type of reactor that essentially uses the waste materials from the reactors we’ve been using for decades. Guess what? They may have the potential to help solve the problem of spent fuel rods that are currently in storage around the world.

These spent rods are radioactive and hazardous. Wouldn’t it be better to get rid of them, generate power doing it, and not have to worry about leaking fuel rod storage? Just asking…

In a perfect world, we’d feed our nuclear warheads into these reactors and metaphorically beat our swords into plowshares. Again, just a thought…

I should mention I’m not convinced that Climate Change is anything under our control. For me, these issues are more about clean air, drinkable water, and living in a beautiful world.

Let’s face it we’ve been teenagers leaving our shit all over our room. I think it’s time that we grew up and recognized that a clean room, house, or planet, is simply a better way to live.

That belief doesn’t require you to agree with any political agenda or pick any sides. It’s a belief that probably most of the people on the planet can agree to without any coercion.

Give it a thought. You don’t have to agree…

Have a great day.

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Bwhahahahah! There are some things that tickle the hell out of me!

CNN: Wanted: People who know a half century-old computer language so states can process unemployment claims.

willcodeforfood.jpegI saw this and just about laughed myself stupid.

I thought, “New Jersey is going to have to check homeless camps, ask old bartenders, check with real estate agents, lawyers, and gas station attendants.”

That’s where most of the old COBOL or FORTRAN programmers ended up, all of whom were laid off in favor of H1B1s. Yep, a lot of those programmers were tossed aside like yesterday’s trash by businesses, and government back in the 80’s.

manonbench.jpegA lot of them moved on to other things and I know several that built lucrative businesses in other fields. For a while I had an Eye doctor that had been a COBOL programmer. He was making way better money as an eye doctor than he ever made as a programmer and the hours were better too.

He didn’t regret getting out of programming at all. Like most of us old school tech people, he’d gone through lay off, after lay off, and had “trained” his replacements at too many companies.

homelesstents.jpegHe went back to school after his last layoff, graduated and started his own practice. To do this, he lived in a leaky teardrop trailer for two years after cashing out everything he owned to pay for school. He wasn’t eligible for student loans because he’d made too much in his previous positions.

I know some real estate agents and a couple of patent attorneys as well. They were all great programmers and they were treated like shit.

Iusedtobeyourneighbor.jpegThey wouldn’t touch a programming job now. It brings back bitter memories for them to even talk about programming.

See, they loved what they were doing, they had their joy crushed and were considered disposable in favor of “cheap” labor. Many of them simply walked off the job rather than “train” their foreign replacements.

I say “train” because more often than not the foreign replacements weren’t up to snuff to begin with. Many of these folks couldn’t follow the code, so training was a pointless exercise.

Then I remembered Y2K and thought it’s been 20 years. Couldn’t these government entities be bothered to update the equipment and programs? 

Some of the COBOL guys did come back to rework Y2K systems and they charged frankly obscene amounts to do it. I’d heard that several paid off houses and cars loans with the money they earned from Y2K contracts.

Then I thought, “Who’s gonna test it?”

I went back to laughing.

I’m sorry that the people in need of unemployment benefits aren’t going to be helped it’s not fair to them. However, this brings into sharp relief, other problems “leaders” in business and government have been sweeping under the carpet for decades.

The chickens are coming home to roost.